Buy, Sell? What To Make Of It All? Legg Mason, Inc. (LM), RPC, Inc. (RES)

Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM) sank -6.13% this week, a trend that has led to both investors and traders taking note of the stock. Over the past one year, the equity price has embarked on a drop that has seen it decline -31.92% and is now down by -34.71% since start of this year. A look at its monthly performance shows that the stock has recorded a -3.72% fall over the past 30 days. Its equity price dipped by -11.01% over the past three months which led to its overall six-month decrease to stand at -27.18%.

The shares of Legg Mason, Inc. (LM) dropped by -41.84% or -$19.72 from its last recorded high of $47.13 which it attained on January 25 to close at $27.41 per share. Over the past 52 weeks, the shares of Legg Mason, Inc. has been trading as low as $26.1 before witnessing a massive surge by 5.02% or $1.31. This price movement has led to the LM stock receiving more attention and has become one to watch out for. It dipped by -0.87% on Thursday and this got the market worried. The stock’s beta now stands at 1.75 and when compared to its 200-day moving average and its 50-day moving average, LM price stands -20.38% below and -5.86% below respectively. Its average daily volatility for this week is 3.56% which is more than the 3.05% recorded over the past month.

Experts from research firms are bullish about the near-term performance of Legg Mason, Inc. with most of them predicting a $31.32 price target on a short-term (12 months) basis. The average price target by the analysts will see a 14.26% rise in the stock and would lead to LM’s market cap to surge to $2.64B. The stock has been rated an average 2.8, which roughly stands towards the bearish end of the spectrum. Reuters looked into the 12 analysts that track Legg Mason, Inc. (NYSE:LM) and find out that 4 of them rated it as a Hold. 5 of the 8 analysts rated it as a Buy or a Strong Buy while 3 advised investors to desist from buying the stock or sell it if they already possess it.

A look at LM technical analysis shows that its 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) is in a neutral zone after reaching 38.09 point. Its trading volume has added 384472 shares compared to readings over the past three months as it recently exchanged 1242062 shares. This means there is improved activity from short-term traders as per session, its average trading volume is 857590 shares, and this is 1.45 times the normal volume.

The price of RPC, Inc. (NYSE:RES) currently stands at $12.17 after it went down by $-0.6 or -4.7% and has found a strong support at $11.78 a share. If the RES price drops below that critical support, then it would lead to a bearish trend. In the short-term, a dip below the $11.39 mark would also be bad for the stock as it means that the stock would plunge by 6.41% from its current position. However, if the stock price is able to trade above the resistance point around $12.55, then it could likely surge higher to try and break the upward resistance which stands at $12.94 a share. Its average daily volatility over the past one month stands at 4.63%. The stock has plunged by 3.29% from its 52-weeks high of $11.77 which it reached on Dec. 21, 2017. In general, it is -4.27% above its 52-weeks lowest point which stands at $12.69 and this setback was observed on Dec. 06, 2018.

Analysts have predicted a price target for RPC, Inc. (RES) for 1 year and it stands at an average $14.21/share. This means that it would likely increase by 16.76% from its current position. The current price of the stock has been moving between $11.77 and $12.545. Some brokerage firms have a lower target for the stock than the average, with one of them setting a price target as low as $12. On the other hand, one analyst is super bullish about the price, setting a target as high as $18.

The RES stock Stochastic Oscillator (%D) is at 10.67%, which means that it is currently oversold and its prices could jump very soon. The shares P/S ratio stands at 1.58 which compares to the 2.32 recorded by the industry or the 12.86 by the wider sector. The stock currently has an estimated price-earnings (P/E) multiple of 17.29, which is higher than the 13.1 multiple of 12-month price-earnings (P/E). The company’s earnings have gone down, with a quarterly decrease rate of -12.3% over the past five years.

Analysts view RPC, Inc. (NYSE:RES) as a Sell, with 3 consensus rating. Reuters surveyed 25 analysts that follow RES and found that 21 of those analysts rated the stock as a Hold. The remaining 4 were divided, with 2 analyst rating it as a Buy or a Strong Buy while 2 analysts advised investors to desist from buying RPC, Inc. (RES) shares or sell it if they already own it.

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